


The Bad Pictures in Your Head

by still_lycoris



Category: X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) - Fandom
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, F/M, Family Feels, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-04
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-09-14 19:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9198779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/still_lycoris/pseuds/still_lycoris
Summary: Magda always knows when Erik is having a nightmare.





	

Magda woke up the moment that Erik started to twitch.

She knew all the danger signs now. When they had first got married, he would reach the screaming and thrashing stage before she woke but not now. She didn’t need him to do any more than stir to know that he was gripped by one of his nightmares and she knew just how to deal with them now – at least, as much as they could be dealt with.

“Wake up,” she whispered, putting her hand on his shoulder but not shaking him. “Wake up, wake up, wake up ... ”

Erik cried out and jerked upright, eyes blank with past horrors. Magda sat up with him and put her arms loosely around his neck, pressing close but not tight, letting him feel she was there without crowding him.

“You’re safe,” she said. “You are safe, you are at home, it’s over, you are safe, you are at home, it’s over, you are safe ... ”

She rocked him very gently as she spoke, pulling him back to her. She hated to feel him tremble like this, hated seeing his eyes so distant as he relived things that he should never have lived in the first place. Sometimes he would cry, wretched sobs that broke her heart every time she heard them. Sometimes he just sat in empty silence, eyes glazed with old fear.

One of his hands came up to grip at her arm and he turned his head to press against hers. Magda willed strength into him, strength and love and safety.

“You are safe,” she whispered and Erik gave a soft sigh of acknowledgement.

“Is Papa all right?”

She jumped. Nina was at the door, her little face puzzled. She had never woken up before. Perhaps she had already been awake and heard their voices or perhaps it was just that she was older now, more attuned to her own surroundings.

“I’m fine, darling,” Erik’s voice barely shook but Magda could still hear it in him. 

“Did you have a bad dream?” 

Erik gave a muffled laugh and lifted his head. Magda gently reached out and wiped the cold sweat from his cheeks and he smiled at her before turning to their daughter.

“Yes,” he said. “I had a bad dream.”

Nina crossed the room and scrambled onto the bed, crawling onto Erik’s lap to hug him, just as he or Magda would have cuddled her after a nightmare.

“Don’t worry Papa,” she said, sounding very grown up. “It was all a bad picture in your head.”

It was what they had always said to her after bad dreams. Magda couldn’t help smiling at it.

“Nina is right,” she said. “Just a bad picture.”

Erik smiled at her again, a shaky smile but a real one. He cuddled Nina with one arm and reached out his arm to her. Magda came to him, wrapping her arms around her husband and daughter. They sat like that for a while, silently holding each other, warm and safe.

“My beautiful babies,” Erik said softly.

“Not a baby,” Nina said, sounding indignant. “I’m a big girl now!”

“Of course you are,” Erik said. He kissed her on the top of the head. “Let’s get my big girl tucked up and asleep again.”

He took her back to bed himself. Magda stayed where she was, listening to the sound of him singing to her. When he came back, he looked more himself. 

“She’s asleep again now. I think she was staying up to watch the owls.”

“We will have to talk to her about that,” Magda said with a small sigh. “She cannot stay up at night just because she wants night-time friends. She’ll be wandering wild before we know it.”

“We’ll talk to her,” Erik agreed. He got into the bed again and pulled her close, settling his cheek against her shoulder. He had shown strength for Nina but Magda knew that the nightmares weren’t so quickly dismissed. She put her arms around him again, made sure that he could touch her, feeling her breath.

“Go to sleep, darling,” she said quietly. “I am here. We are both here.”

Erik settled in her arms, going still. Magda stroked his hair, listening as his breathing finally evened out. She knew that Erik’s nightmares would never leave him entirely. He had suffered too much for that and some things could not be forgotten. But perhaps, with enough time, she and Nina could fill him with so many good memories that the bad ones would be swamped.

All they needed was time.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 12dayschristmas 2016

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Taste of Fear (Turn Back Time Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12056064) by [Unforgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforgotten/pseuds/Unforgotten)




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